Parma councilwoman wants to regulate LED signs

The city should consider placing a moratorium on electronic changeable-message signs and billboards.

Councilwoman Debbie Lime made that suggestion Monday night. She said the bright signs — known as light-emitting diode or LED signs for short — are distracting drivers and ruining residential neighborhoods.

Lime said LED signs, used by businesses, are proliferating. She wants the city to write an ordinance that would regulate them.

Mayor Tim DeGeeter said that city officials have talked about reviewing Parma’s existing sign ordinance for a long time.

DeGeeter said he wants to take a comprehensive look at the sign ordinance and perhaps determine how to regulate LED signs.

However, Lime said the city must do something quickly about electronic changeable-message signs and billboards.

“Pretty soon we will be known as the city of LED signs,” Lime said.

Lime said that in early December, Rudy’s Strudel & Bakery installed a new LED billboard on top of its Ridge Road building.

However, the billboard malfunctioned the first week, Lime said.

“It was like being at Jacobs Field at midnight,” Lime said. “That’s how bright the signs (on the billboard) were.”

Lime said similar changeable-message signs line Ridge. She said that Dairy Queen and St. Charles Borromeo Church have them.

Meanwhile, Parma Community General Hospital is installing an LED sign on State Road, Lime said.

The problem, Lime said, is that the city’s sign ordinance has no provision for electronic changeable-message signs.

So, for the past six or seven years, the city’s Board of Building Appeals have approved LED signs by granting zoning variances.

In July 2010, the board approved — by variance — the city’s first electronic billboard on State Road at Ridgewood Drive. It changes messages every eight seconds.

The board attached conditions to its approval. For example, each electronic message must remain on the billboard for at least eight seconds.

Also, if the board malfunctions, it must turn black. In addition, the board must have an automatic brightness control so it does not became too bright at night.

Nevertheless, Lime did not like that fact that council has no jurisdiction over the building appeals board. That means the board’s decisions on LED signs are final.

Councilman Brian Day said the city’s sign ordinance is also unfair to businesses wanting to install LED signs.

For example, a gas station at Grantwood Drive and Broadview Road has requested an LED sign that would show gas prices. He said the station should not have to ask for a variance for the sign.

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